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Inspired by the tragic, ill-fated love of Queen Elizabeth I and the Earl of Leicester. This is our modernization of a 17th-century perfume blend favored by British aristocracy: rosemary, orange flower, grape spirit, five rose variants, lemon peel, and mint.

Imp: Smells medicinal, like a cough syrup but not cherry-flavored.Wet: Smells strangely like a fresh, unlit menthol cigarette. I was really hoping this wasn't all to the scent until the menthol went away. The mint, lemon peel and rosemary mixed wet made that smell. The mint came out quite a bit here.Dry: I can definately smell the rosemary and some green rose quite like moon rose. Orange flower following lightly. The mint apparently settled on my skin and faded away, which I'm very glad for. I don't know if I get any grape from it, to be honest. Maybe that's the sweetness above the rosemary and orange flower but I'm not sure.

Category: Rosemary/Orange flower/RoseRating: 3/5; I love rosemary but the mint at first doesn't like me and I don't like itOverall: I would have loved this scent immensely if it wasn't for the mint. Menthol cigs aren't exactly a nice smelling thing to me. I LOVE rosemary and rose mixed together so I may be able to ignore the mint but I'm not sure. I think Catherine + Moon Rose would smell better than this blend for my rosemary and rose fix. It could be lovely, though so I think I'll give it at least one more try.
Edited September 30, 2007 by Shollin

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On me- I can smell the mint now with the citrus and herbs. Very nice, it's minty and herbally. It's also light and delicate. This is a fresh and clean scent. I end up getting mint as the predominant note with an herbal undertone. It's very much a spring scent for me, and I'm loving this mint-citrus blend. I think this needs to be big bottle for me.

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The mint was something I noticed right off, the rosemary came out after wearing for awhile. Combination of floral and rosemary, is softer than I expected. Nice scent, but doubt I will get anything more than the imp.

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I received Bess courtesy of the Lab, as a frimp with my order. (thank you!) In the imp, it smelled very fresh, natural and bracing. I got a fairly strong hit of rosemary and citrus, mainly orange blossom. On my skin, I was a bit surprised -- I'd anticipated that the rosemary and rose elements would amp, and they didn't. What blossomed was a sweet citrus, very much orange blossom, backed up with a kick sweet grape. Those elements simply dominated the entire time I wore Bess, and it tended to fade rather rapidly on my skin. I think I would need to wear a substantial amount of it to have any lasting power, and it's not really a scent that I hanker for, although it's extremely pleasant.

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This is a lovely sweet and soft scent. One of my favourites, even though I tend to go for the strong foody ones! It's just so nice, and smells so lovely and sweet and gentle and floral on my skin. A gorgeous, delicate scent that lingers.

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The first time I tried this, it turned into a citrus-mint alcohol. The scent of alcohol overwhelmed everything and turned what sounded like a lovely oil into an astringent.

I tried it again today, and I'm terribly glad that I did. It's still citrus-mint, but the grape spirit and rose are stepping forward and softening it. The grape notes remind me of Delphi, but the other notes lighten it, making it airy and regal, while the notes in Delphi made it more earthy.

The only thing I don't like so much is that it's terribly fleeting on my skin; not even half an hour after applying it, and it's barely discernible. It's a scent that I'd love to get a big bottle of, but I think it would have to be worn only in lockets to try to draw the scent out more.

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Wow. Wet, this is *bitter*. I can't even figure out why, it's just bitter like overbrewed tea. Calms down once it dries a bit, and I start to pick out notes: the bitter is maybe citrus rind 'cause it smells like Valencia marmalade, the roses are fresh and remarkably subdued, and there's the rosemary. I got this for two reasons, those being the historical concept and the rosemary, and now I'm getting them both. Thank goodness the grape note is behaving itself; I didn't really see that until now, and grape has this habit of going nasty on me. I can smell it lurking, and every now and then it becomes dominant for a disconcerting Sweet-Tarts moment, but the other notes quickly subdue and muffle it until it behaves itself and goes back to smelling like white grape juice.

It's a fresh green scent, not frivolous but dignified; it reminds me more of the Huntington Gardens than of anything else, right now. That's *good*. Not much throw, but when you get a whiff of it it goes right up your nose, making up for that fact. This will be nice for summer -- it's bright and gardeny but sufficiently not-girly that I'll still wear it. Nifty.

Also, so far Athens and Bess have both liked me well -- maybe I do well with historically-inspired scents? Whoa, rock on. I *like* that trend.

Edit: Wore this today; I applied it about six hours ago and it's still going strong. It's blended so well that I can barely figure out which notes are lingering the longest, although the orange-flower and rosemary are certainly still there. Should try this in a spray, 'cause it just seems like that sort of scent. Definitely still Huntington Gardens though. Verrry glad I tried this; I don't like the girly scents but still want a few light ones, so the bright bitter dignity of this one is just right, and makes Bess similar to Nosferatu among my favourites.

Edited June 12, 2006 by septima_pica

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Preconceived notions: I'm becoming exceptionally fond of the rosemary/mint combination, so I'm hoping for something along those lines. The "five rose variants" bit kind of alarms me. Rose and I are not on speaking terms.

In the imp: Lemon peel, grape, rose and mint. Oddly pleasant.

On skin, wet: Ah, rosemary and mint! The rose lingers, but doesn't jump into the foreground immediately, which is surprising. The lemon peel and orange flower add something unique and strangely lovely to it.

On skin, dry: How odd. The skin I applied Bess to itches around the edges, and kind of... tingles. I've never had an adverse reaction, let along the strange tingling/itching I'm getting from this, from any BPAL blend (that I recall, anyway). Sure enough, little bumps start to appear, and the skin becomes very red. I'm not sure if it's Bess or an oddly-timed bought of Temporary Hives (I'm quite prone to them, weird little things; they appear for no reason and disappear in an hour). I think it might be Bess.

Besides all that, the roses have marked their territory, and, possessive beasts they are re: me, they aren't letting up. There's not even a hint of mint, orange flower or lemon peel anymore, just rose and rosemary, and it's a very... odd kind of scent. Sharp and green and rosey and just not me.

Conclusion/Notes: Adverse reaction or not, Bess isn't for me. I'd try it again in a few days, to see if it really is Bess, but I'm understandably hesitant to. :\

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Bess - When I first applied this, all I could smell was something wet and green like moss and dirt. It was icky and cloying. But after the first 15 minutes or so, it mellowed out into a really lovely fruity/floral. The light crispness of the grape is the predominant note on me, followed by a soft bit of rose and orange flower, and far, far in the background the lemon peel peeks out here and there. It turned into quite a pretty fragrance after all. The second time I tried it, the acrid and pungent “icky and cloying” scent I noticed the first time lasted a full 45 minutes. It did get pretty after that, but I won’t be wearing it again. The full dry-down is pretty, but not pretty enough to be worth the first 45 or so minutes where I want to escape my skin to get away from the scent. This definitely doesn’t work on me.

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The description of this imp was one of the reasons I put in my very first BPAL order. And for some lucky women, Bess is a benevolent queen indeed. On my mother this turned into a lovely floral; on my sister-in-law (who ended up with said imp) it was a sophisticated creation that showed off the hint of grape spirit like a tiny crowning jewel.

And on me . . . A little orange. A little mint. Then rosemary, rosemary, ROSEMARY!

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It's quite naturally smelling somehow. I'm not sure I could identify any notes, since my nose often has a blank spot where the receptors for "rosemary" are supposed to be, but I like it quite a lot.

It somehow reminds me of Lush's Black Toothgel, only this is more yellow/orange in feel, a bit more citrussy.

The toothgel always makes me think either "babies' dummy" or "condom", so that probably translates to latex. And, while that doesn't sound like a pleasant scent association, it strangely is something I enjoy a lot.

The effect is not that strong with Bess, but I do get it in here, too.

It also reminds some kind of sun protection lotion, but really, it smells quite natural, not too sweet, not too fruity, not too floral. Just nice. And I wouldn't have thought that neither.

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I was getting a strange swirl of a bunch of notes that seemed to be arguing and fighting over who could be the loudest. Then they cooled off. Oh mint. Mint wins the argument. Darn, I was hoping grapefruit would win or a tie between grapefruit and rosemary. Mint is doing this just to spite me because it knows how I feel about it. oh well Stupid evil mint.

ADDED April 9:

Nothing really jumps out at me in this one. It's light. It starts out kind of floral with a bit of minty foodness. Then the mint gets much stronger on my skin. Mint and I have a bad history together. I don't think this is going to work out.

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i was excited to try this because i love queen elizabeth, and that made me curious.

i can't pick out many notes in this, but i can smell the grape mostly. it's more like sparkling grape juice than anything else. then there is something almost smoky-herbal in the background. perhaps it's the rosemary? it's not really what i think of rosemary as smelling like, but it's all i can think of.

this is too sweet for me and that smoky note makes it smell weirdly off on my skin, so i don't think i'll be keeping this one.

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In the bottle: Orange blossom, a bit of lemon and rose, all rather powdery and vaguely medicinal.

Wet: Very tart orange blossom, with clear lemon peel and herbs.

Drydown: Ooh, mint, very clearly, while the orange blossom disappears and the lemon lingers around. I get what I think is grape spirit, and it gets pretty powdery and stays pretty sour. Finally, the rose starts making an appearance, discreetly in the background, and that's when everything develops: the grape spirit becomes sweeter and fuller, this time I can smell fruit along with the rose. Rosmary has come out too, whereas the mint and orange blossom have completely disappeared. Also, it stops being powdery, a big bonus.

Overall: It goes through some strange stages, but the final drydown of this blend is very pleasant. It's a warm, old-fashioned scent, which smells refined and a little bit heady, but also just a touch medicinal. It won't make my top favourites list, but I can see it being a very pleasant autumn/winter scent, when you need to be warmed up by a drop of grape spirit.

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In the bottle: I smell the grape spirit and something fresh...whether it is the mint or the rosemary, I can't tell.

Wet: The grape is the strongest first, and it does smell like fresh squeezed juice. However, I can also detect the mint and rosemary in the background.

Drydown and wear: This is not as strong as I'd like it to be (then again, there usually needs to be a resin involved for a scent to really stick to me), but it goes through a nice morphing. The roses come out, and the grape spirit recedes into the background. It is very pleasant, and I love the concept, so I'm glad I have a bottle.

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I swear I can smell every named component in Bess. It is very pretty, somewhat old fashioned in a charming way, more like 4711 than "Ye Olde Rosemary Water from which One Mae Taeke His Leasures". Neroli gives it the old time feeling, and the grapiness makes it very 21st century. This is a great one for warm weather, it has a bit of a fruity feel as well as the herbs. Nicley done.